I live in the middle of where many of the early actions occurred in the beginnings of The American Revolution and in same cases, right down the street from some historic battles. As I begin to explore these locations, these photographs offer a uniquely modern view of what these historic roads and battle grounds look like in todays perspective with stores, cars, houses, and other details to contrast with what colonists and "Minutemen" militia and British troops experienced during the birth of a nation.

I have mixed in a few photographs from recent re-enactments photographs I have made, which correspond to the battles which occurred on April 14th, 1774.

On-going series of photographs made in Martha's Vineyard.

Fenway Park is located in the city center of Boston, Massachusetts, near Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home for the Boston Red Sox, the city's American League baseball team, and since 1953, the only Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise in Boston. While the stadium was built in 1912, it was rebuilt in 1934. It is the oldest active park in MLB. Because of its age and constrained location in Boston's dense Fenway and Kenmore neighborhoods, the park has been renovated or expanded many times, resulting in quirky features including "The Triangle," Pesky's Pole, and the Green Monster in left field. It is the fifth-smallest among MLB ballparks by seating capacity, second-smallest by total capacity, and one of eight that cannot accommodate at least 40,000 spectators.

Fenway has hosted the World Series 11 times, with the Red Sox winning six of them and the Boston Braves winning one. Besides baseball games, it has also been the site of many other sporting and cultural events.

April 20, 2012, marked Fenway Park's centennial. On March 7 of that year, the park was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is a pending Boston Landmark, which will regulate any further changes to the park. The ballpark is considered one of the most well-known sports venues in the world and a symbol of Boston.

In the Summer of 2016, I made a road trip that started in Detroit, Michigan for a few days, on to the Concours of America car show in Plymouth Michigan with a final destination to the "windy city" of Chicago. It wasn't windy while on the other hand, Chicago definitely did not disappoint. Historic architecture, parks, and open spaces sitting on the Great Lakes and a visit to the Art Institute of Chicago to see my favorite American painter, Edward Hopper's paintings, Nighthawks, New York Movie and Gas. More to do than in my four days there but as usual with traveling, a promise to come back again. These photographs are the result of my wanderings around Chicago.

Beautiful laid-back scenery waiting to be explored. Farm fields stretching as far as the eye can see to pristine coastlines, fishing villages to hiking trails and bald eagles, these provinces offer the visitor a peek into a beautiful and less explored part of North America.

Even on vacation, I never stop looking at my surroundings while contemplating visual possibilities which explore cultural and personal experiences about the world in which we share. These images are not about the dramatic vistas but more about the mundane goings and comings on the beach. A place where most people come to relax, the beach is a wonderful place of sand, water, and sky interspersed with people looking for something to do, even if that looks like they are doing nothing.

One of the most successful NFL franchises led by quarterback, Tom Brady and head coach, Bill Belichick. These photographs were made at a home game in 2014 against the Oakland Raiders.

What surprises me most about NFL games is how much the games and the overall experience is about entertainment, tailgating before the game, sales of beer, food, and of course NFL merchandise like shirts of people's favorite players. Winning the game doesn't hurt either and being a fan of the Patriots one certainly got used to winning seasons ending with a Super Bowl Championship, but then again things change and nothing lasts forever. Tom Brady is now with the Tampa Bay Bucaneers.

The City of Lights might well be the most beautiful in the world depending on who you ask and who has spent time wandering the various arrondissements. Surrounded in history, museums, architectural details, astounds and surprises, and love for food-simple and complex. Paris is a magical place to spend free time exploring. Plenty of great photographers have explored the city and left their unique and memorable images from their times roaming Paris by day or night. Jacques Henri Lartigue, Robert Doisneau, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eugene Atget, Willy Ronis, William Klein, Andre Kertesz, Louis Daguerre are just a few of the great photographers along with the many painters, Manet, Degas, Monet, Ingres, Delacroix, Courbet, Renoir, Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse. This brief list does not even include musicians, writers, poets, playwrights, and sculptors who influenced how we see ourselves in one of the great cities in the world. Many would think that Paris is stuck in the past, but that would too easily discredit the innovative and contemporary solutions many Parisians evolve to. Paris has always been a place for creative spirits to experiment and grow their crafts to an audience who understood and appreciated art's importance in their everyday lives.

Photograph of a newspaper in a yellow vending box with the cover story about a killer on the loose in Atlanta. At the time, I could see that this was a leading colorful crime story for the newspaper to go with. After 16 years and having rediscovered this image, this photograph is even more remarkable for its commentary on human nature and the violent tragic times we continue to live in.

Strange how a relatively small change can create a huge hole in one's life.

We took our 2 dogs by car to 150-acre woods and wetlands with well-marked paths for an afternoon hike. Shortly after arriving, I removed the leash off of Winnie, our 4-year-old shelter dog who we adopted 3 years ago, and she almost immediately went straight into the wetland thicket surrounded by 10-foot reeds and quickly disappeared. I went running in after her and after 50 feet into the narrow trail while sinking ankle-deep into the muck. I lost sight of her completely. * FYI- almost every morning of the week, I regularly remove her leash while walking in the woods with her on our daily morning walks. Overall she is a trusted trail companion and not prone to taking off.

I can go into all that we did over the course of the next 40 hours to try and locate Winnie, with multiple groups of people actively out looking for her including sending up a drone at 2 different times to search by air.

Thinking through the many options, with most of them not looking very favorably for a safe return, if she made it home by herself, I had fixed the gate to the backyard to remain open just in case. The short version is that just over 1.5 days later and 2 long nights away, Winnie made it back home at 5:15 am and alerted us of her return by barking softly and waking us up. So happy to have her back at home. The amazing return of a most loved pet.

There are several beautiful vantage points in which to see the Boston skyline go from afternoon to evening with the interior lights of the many surrounding buildings aglow once the sun sets on the other side of Boston. One of my favorites activities is to get on one of the numerous ferries or cruise boats in Boston Harbor and go for a ride on a nice Summer afternoon or evening.

These photographs were made during a 1-week excursion on and off a cruise ship. My former in-laws graciously invited us for a Western Caribbean, 7-day cruise on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines as a Christmas vacation present in 2004. Being in the Caribbean in late December seemed like a pleasant way to spend Christmas with our 2 young children (7 and 10 yrs old) and the grandparents. But then again, I didn't fully consider the drawbacks of being stuck on a floating metal island with thousands of people who I never met before nor would want to meet ever again. Add unlimited alcohol, food, and entertainment (Disney style) and you have the perfect makings of a bad dream.

The cruise ship experience is designed to give you all you need in terms of distractions with unlimited eating in multiple restaurants and cafeteria's, workouts in the small gym, beauty and massage treatments, basketball or climbing and relaxing and reading while lying in the sun on the different decks, swimming in the relatively small pools with lots of children and adults who clearly didn't shower prior to getting in.

The ship also schedules daily excursions to visit tourist zones on Caribbean islands, so travelers can spend money on duty-free clothing, jewelry, alcohol and be able to return travelers back to the safety and comfort of the ship to eat, enjoy the post-dinner entertainment including shows, gambling and then off to sleep. Rinse, repeat Day 2, 3, 4, 5,6, and finally returning to the original port on day 7.

We live in a fog induced by Covid, and our lives are in distress and significantly altered. Very little is normal right now. We turn on the news and listen to the reports of transmissions skyrocketing, and the death toll continues at a horrific rate. The number of people who refuse to wear masks because they feel their rights as an individual justifies their ability to disregard the recommendations of local and national health guidelines. Many of these same people had placed their trust in leaders who only cared for their votes and donations. Now, they have to watch as family members lie alone in hospitals trying to comprehend which decisions’ they made that brought them to these final lonely moments.

Stay safe, and please wear a mask for me, and I will wear one for you.

They say you can leave a place, but you can't take the place out of you. New York City is one of those places for me, especially if you were born there and grew up there. The city always seemed huge and oversized with those canyons of city streets lined on both sides of the street with tall skyscrapers and a vast amount of people living, working, and visiting what has later become well known thru an ad campaign in the 1970s as 'The Big Apple.' My grandparents on both sides of my family lived in Manhattan. Both my parents were born and lived there. After my dad entered the Marines where he served in the South Pacific during World War 2 and then consequently my parents began early child-rearing days where I joined my two older siblings in a small 3 bedroom apartment on the 72nd Street and the West Side Park.

If you can afford them, big cities offer many amenities. Museums, theaters, restaurants, music venues such as The Blue Note, Carnegie Hall, Studio 54, Max's Kansas City, New York Opera and the New York Philharmonic, and many other famous jazz, rock venues and nightclubs. From international fashion houses to large department stores, private schools, and universities: a dizzying array of distractions for those with money and a deep underbelly for those trying to make it on different terms. Depending on to whom you were born, the city either sparkled, or you were busy polishing the crystal for elaborate parties.

Detroit, the Motor City has held a lot of mystique for me over the years. From its legendary musical voices which I grew up listening to Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, the Supremes, and later on Eminem. The automobile manufacturing powerhouses of the Big Three: Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler automotive factories and headquarters added to the robust industrial and financial landscape. Detroit's professional athletes and sports teams including the world champion Detroit Tigers, Detriot Lions, Red Wings, and the Pistons.

Detroit has an undeniable history and a spell that demanded that I find time to explore the place. I booked a flight, picked up a rental car, and mapped out a road trip to spend 3 days exploring Detroit, over to Plymouth, MI for the 'Concourse of America' for 2 days to shoot work for my 'Art of the Automobile' series and then a final stop in Chicago for another 4 days of exploring and photographing.

I always have high expectations of bringing back memorable images whenever I head out on these adventures. I try to keep costs low while traveling comfortably and keeping safe along the way. Never knowing what I will come across but that place of not knowing is a vital ingredient to the creative process. As long as I am walking and shooting, I know that I will bring back a few stellar images, which was the original goal of going was all about.

War is hell and those who have valiantly served are owed huge amounts of respect and admiration for putting themselves into harm's way for protecting and promoting American democratic values in foreign wars and battles. I can't imagine charging into a battle and knowing that in an instant my life can be cut short by another person who considers me the enemy.

As part of our inherent drive for preservation and survival, the pandemic has forced many of us to re-evaluate how we interact with others—the person we pass by on the street or in a park or even a close family member invited to share a meal at a table outside or inside our homes.

Our current circumstances have forced us to deal with stranger danger in light of a totally new set of concerns and defenses. Is that stranger wearing a mask? What is the distance I am trying to maintain from him/her? If I stop to talk with them at the dog park or in a grocery store how far is too far but close enough that we aren’t shouting in order to hear each other’s mask-muffled voices? Is it safe to be in a building that others are in? As if life was easy before this, we now have multiple new complexities to deal with, adding even more stress to the challenge of just getting through another day.

The mask will continue to be our best first line of defense against contracting the virus. My fear is that this will go on for months, if not years, until we have an approved vaccine with few to no side effects. I look forward to being able to read the non-verbal interactions I depend on and which I am used to deciphering—basic normal facial expressions. I look forward to again experiencing the easy conversations that turn strangers into friends.

One of my creative heroes is Edward Hopper's use of color, darkness, and emptiness to move the viewer's eye around a canvas.

Similar to painters, etchers, and illustrators, a photographer can also define the main subject by filling in the shadows and allowing the background ambient light to create a different way of creating mood and artistic a visual story. The color of light brings together the threads of a mystery by partially describing this woman while she carries a stylish handbag and her own plastic bottle of water. The vending machines obscure her as well as help to define her but we will never know for sure where she was going.

In some ways very little is different and in other ways Boston continues to grow and add new buildings to the changing landscape.

At the time, I was documenting Boston for a major university and recently took a deep dive into this file of images and was happily surprised with finding some beautiful and classic images of Boston that havent seen the light of day in many years.

One of my favorite places to visit is the Yucatán Peninsula where the Azul waters are exquisite to swim in and the soft sand is comforting for long walks on the beach.

What most beachgoers never experience and barely comprehend is the beauty and fascinating aquacultures which reside under the surface of the Caribbean Sea. With proximity and access to spectacular scuba diving off the Palancar Reef, one of the biggest and longest reefs in the world is also home to many different species of fish including, sea turtles, barracuda, moray eels, grouper, parrot fish, nurse sharks as well as distinct and beautiful coral formations.

Travel is often about getting from point A to point B in as fast a time frame as possible. In a commercial mode of transportation, it's not like you can ask the driver or in this case, the pilot from Jet Blue, Delta, United, or American Airlines to slow down or circle back so I could look at something in more depth.

When the opportunity to travel is available, as you might imagine, I always bring my camera bag with me and it's never too far from where I am sitting. I usually keep it under the seat in front of me just in case the scene outside the window gets interesting. If you keep the camera bag up in the overhead compartment, you will rarely be able to get in time to photograph whatever you were looking at 3 minutes ago. 600 miles an hour x 3 minutes = the plane has traveled 30 miles from when you last looked out the window.

On one particular flight, I was told by a steward that I am not allowed to photograph within the plane because the electronics of my camera might interfere with the electronics of the plane. Did I hear that right? My camera might make a modern jet crash and yet all those laptops and cell phones are fine? In short folks, that clearly just not true and someone up there is pretending to be God and doesn't understand what they were saying. I did put my camera away as I didn't want to create a scene or force a landing resulting in my being removed from the flight and not getting to point B.

Sometimes a landscape photograph is not always about the glamorous and spectacular but more to do with capturing a sense of place. An unusual posting from an atypical point of view while visually describing the terrain and geography of a local woods in Chestnut Hill, MA. In this photograph, I have removed the horizon line and am playing with perspective and point of view as delineated by the trees guiding the viewer's eyes from the front towards the back of the image. Along the way, we can look at the forest floor and natures haphazard design.

Water continues to amaze me as it is adaptable and takes on so many different qualities. This photograph made on the edge of a remote pond in New Hampshire while on a hike.

A very different way to explore your surroundings is to find different times of the day and under various atmospheric conditions ( rain, snow, darkeness) to search out what makes your city or town truly unique. Like many people, I am resistant for obvious reasons about getting myself out of bed at 4:30 am to drive around looking for photographs. The shock of the alarm going off is the best reason not to get up and simply turn over and head back to dreamland.

This photograph came about from one of my early morning forays into Boston's Seaport District. As the great and iconic photographer, Jay Maisel once said, "If you are are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you're not out there, you will only hear about it."

To find a fresh perspective any photographer should know the great photographers who have come before and laid the groundwork for what successful photographs. Some of the great landscape photographers are Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, to William Henry Jackson to Max Rive, Mandy Lea, and Valda Bailey to name a few. There is a much longer list of very accomplished and talented image-makers whose work is outstanding and should be reviewed.

If you are photographing nature, try to make the photograph uniqly yours. In a world inundated with photographs, where almost everyone is a photographer, the challenge is what does your world look like standing in your position in this very moment. No one else can have that perspective except for you!

Pablo Picasso once said, “We all know that art is not the truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies”.

Artists create work to discover what something becomes after they push the edges of their skills and vision. Some artists know the story they want to tell before they start; others discover the story once they have completed the work. Most artists can’t help themselves from creating new work, doubling and tripling down as they try to find the holy grail within their creations.

We work in various states of mind while trying to find our voice to give meaning and relevance within patterns, colors, lines, forms, and shapes, and content. . Some artists use figurative expression while others use emotion infused in abstraction to find a voice for their obsession and passion.

As visual artists we grapple with the question, do our creations have to be relevant to an audience to be validated as art? Or is it simply enough that we feel compelled and driven to make art that satisfies ourselves. An audience of one is a very lonely place, but that is where most art begins and ends.

It's much harder for me to find the motivation to go out in the cold weather of New England and explore what Winter photography has to offer. Rarely do I come back empty-handed especially if I head out into a raging snowstorm. The one sure thing I can count on is that there are rarely many cars on the road but I do have to pay special attention to the snowplows working to clear the snow-laden streets and making sure I don't end up in their way. Besides making sure the truck is filled with plenty of gas, I dress with an outer layer of waterproof clothes with plans on hiking into woods and forests while making sure not to fall down any ravines into lakes or reservoirs. I know that things can get dangerous climbing around slippery rocks on the waters edge while trying to find an expansive view of what Winter looks like. Another issue rarely mentioned or spoken about by outdoor photographers is the hazards of snowflakes on the lens of the camera which is similar to water/raindrops on the lens which definitely add a distracting visual blotch to any photograph so keeping the camera and lens relatively dry and wiping off any water helps to keep my shots crystal sharp. This sounds like it should be easy to do but it's important to develop a technique that doesn't let more droplets on the lens while trying to get water drops off the lens. Changing and switching the lens also creates its own perils of keeping the equipment free of snow and ice.

It feels very strange.... like time has stood still and we are all in a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie, but in this case, it's very real. I look out the window of my home and it all looks normal out there. Sun shining, birds flying around, and the wind is rushing through the leaves of the Spring growth while the lawnmowers break the silence with their annoying buzzing but I know the world isn't right. I am not alone in this bad dream. One's experience certainly depends on if you or any loved ones or friends have had the virus and if it has a mild effect or a severe response where only a trip to the hospital can possibly save you. This has struck close to home as my daughter tested positive almost three weeks ago without any major symptoms as well as my sister and her husband.

An unprepared, narcissistic and hateful President Trump who is in denial about the harm that this pandemic is causing and his constant lying and misinforming American citizens as to the dire impact it is having on people's health, mental well being, and the financial hit the economy is taking all because it will potentially hurt his chances for re-election.

As I venture out to explore what Boston looks like under self-isolation, the city was locked-down pretty tight with a few exceptions. Most of the people I pass are using face masks but I am still both surprised and annoyed at how many people flaunt the recommendations of health care professionals. Mental illnesses aside, arrogance and self-centered attitudes continue to exist. Maybe Darwin's theories will take its toll but unfortunately, it will also take the innocent and vulnerable as well.

A wider selection of images from my current documentary photography series at the Lynch Family Skateboard Park in Cambridge, MA.

I admire the grittiness, culture, and the repeated attempts by these mostly young men and boys with a handful of young women using skateboards, scooters, rollerblades and BMX bicycles to attain their goals, admiration, and respect from their fellow athletes while trying to accomplish various moves and skills. Thanks for giving me the trust and opportunity to documenting you while perfecting your moves.

A cold Spring day in NYC while riding a ferry around the New York City Harbor and then up the East River to see the United Nations. A classic tourist adventure except we were nothing like tourists as my family is 3rd generation New Yorkers. I find getting out on the water is always a great way to see a coastal city. NYC doesn't even feel like a coastal city because of its density of population and buildings but it's surrounded by the Hudson River and the East River and by the New York Harbor opening up to the Atlantic Ocean. A great excuse to do something new and different in New York City.

1:00 pm in the afternoon never looked so promising and debauched.

Having never been to Nikki Beach before or for that matter on St Barts, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Arriving for lunch with friends and recent acquaintances in mid-March, we started with a round of Rosé wine which seems to be the standard drink in St Barts, often ordered and served in magnum size bottles. Followed quickly was 2 large platters of sushi and salads and more Rosé. To be able to find so many freshly prepared foods on a small island in the middle of the Caribbean Sea is quite amazing. As we began eating under the outdoor tent, there were another 20 tables filled with fellow diners enjoying the warm sea breezes and music wafting in from the DJ booth.

Somewhere during our meal, the overall noise level began to build. Loud talking and laughter driven by an excess of alcoholic drinks while the music slowly notched to a higher volume. A young hipster hired by the club brought out his saxophone and started to play along to the DJ soundtrack. Before long, he was on a table wailing on the sax but surprising to me, he was joined by fellow diners of men, and women dancing on the surrounding tables still filled with dishes of food and glasses of wine. As the name Nikki Beach indicates, this restaurant sits on a beautiful sandy beach drenched in turquoise waters and extends past the outdoor restaurant onto the beach itself with lounge chairs and umbrellas for the guests. Casual dining to say the least as many of the patrons wore bathing suits, going back and forth from swimming in the sea to joining friends eating drinking and dancing on the tables.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude installation of 'The Gates' in NYC, NY. 2005

The beauty of Christo's work has been his overall vision of using the geographic landscape as his palette for his installations. Christo was one of the rare artists who saw his work big, really big. As he used islands, fences fabric extended across rural landscapes, Christo had no other motive except to temporarily change the status quo and to encourage people to see the world differently. One of his last art installations, before he died, was 'The Gates' which he designed with his creative partner and wife, Jeanne-Claude.

New Yorkers are a fairly hardy lot and walk the city streets no matter what the weather is doing. Having another excuse to explore Central Park in the middle of winter gave New Yorkers and visitors another reason to be outside for some fresh air on the way to meetings, exercise during lunch or just exploring how the ribbon of orange fabric flowing thru the southern section of Central Park changed how people saw and experienced the New York City.

One can only wonder what Frederick Law Olmstead might have thought and said if he was alive to see this. Probably would have loved the creativity and temporarily enhanced how the park was seen during the installation of The Gates.

From my series 'Someplace Else'. Inherent in life around us, is the possibility of making iconic images, planned or unplanned. I stopped on the way to the hardware store to pick up some things I needed for a project I was working on. One reason to always have your camera gear with you is because you just never know what you might come across between here and there.

This high school baseball game was being played on a field fairly close to my home. I didn't have any kids on the team nor attending high school but it was a beautiful spring afternoon and the light was crisp, the uniforms bright white, and the field a rich green that I decided to stop and photograph. Almost always when I am out in public spaces, people want to know what paper am I from? When I tell them that I am working for myself, there is an immediate moment of disappointment as the person is really asking if there is a chance if they or their child might become famous for a day and whether a photo might appear in the local newspaper. Some days, I wish I was from the local paper or working for ESPN and getting paid for watching and working an irrelevant baseball game that almost no one playing or attending will remember tomorrow and much less in 6 months. Kids are kind of brainwashed to believe that their best effort in a sport will yield a step to stardom, a memorable moment in their lives forever tied to the game they are playing. Besides the momentary yelling and high fiving for making a hit, striking out a batter, or scoring a winning run, this game most often stops right there in every one of the player's shared history unless someone is documenting it. The chance that an athlete playing on the field will eventually go on to Division 3 and subsequently into professional baseball is a rare feat in of itself.

Horizontal color photograph of Main Street at sunset in a small town in Colorado.

This photograph was made on 35mm transparency film during a road trip I made back in the mid- 1990s. Arriving in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then heading north to Santa Fe for 2 days and continuing through to Taos for another couple of days, eventually traveling further north into southern Colorado before returning down the western side of New Mexico and returning to Albuquerque before heading home to Boston. The purpose of this 1-week solitary road trip adventure was to experience and create fresh images of the American Southwest. In some ways, I was looking for a place that no longer existed, wiped out by modern easy to assemble bland architecture. There were definitely exquisite expanses of land but they were surrounded by highways and house trailers. It took some time in order to settle down from my preconceived notions of a Southwest long gone but if I looked hard enough, I was able to find and recognize a new vision that had still recognizable layers from the past. Either way, where ever you go, there you are. Like many artists, I look and study my surroundings until something begins to speak to me and inspires me to start advancing film through the camera.

Horizontal color graphic photograph of a yellow number 5, hand-painted with a black outline onto the trunk of a red 1950's hot rod automobile.

This image is from my photographic series, 'The Art of the Automobile'. I have been following many different car shows for the past 8 years. Traveling around different parts of the United States to see the very best and beautiful automobile designs. From the top tier, Concourse d'Elegance's to the regional shows to where local car clubs get together at an available parking lot often to support a local charity while schmoozing and talking shop. I am not the usual type of attendee at any of these shows as I am not in any way a car aficionado or gear head. I know very little of the mechanical evolution these cars have gone thru. Many times, these guys - yes, most of the people who are showing cars are men over 50 years old and have completely restored these cars from inside and out, top to bottom which can take anywhere from 5-10 years of effort. That's without mentioning the tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket, that goes into refurbishing them to factory conditions and very close to the OEM-original equipment manufacturer as to the day they rolled off the factory floor.

I have mentioned and written about the cameras' unique ability to describe details of life around us, which is like no other medium available. It's vital as an artist to break rules in order to come up with surprising and unexpected results. Pushing other inherent abilities of the camera as well as the digital processing of images is a great stepping off point into the unknown.

I find, as an artist, it is required that I leave behind judgment and pre-determined biases while working. Shoshin is a word from Zen Buddhism meaning "beginner's mind." It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when working at an advanced level, but just as a beginner would. Working in this mindset is critical as the Zen monk, Shunryū Suzuki wrote about in his book 'Zen Mind, Beginners Mind'.

I find the very basics of successful art and image-making are unique and specific to my direct experience of being in the world. My approach is inherent to exploration and discovery with the foundations of art defined by form, design, perspective, juxtaposition, color, visual directions, as well as ambiguity and suggestion of content. Many times the question a photograph or artist raises is more intrigueing than the obvious answer it might reveal.

A doorman standing outside of Trump Tower while protecting access against people from freely walking into the building. What do these images say about privilege, access, and control? For many, it's just another building. In this street photograph, I bring up the potential for conversation, a visual narrative, and discussion about who is in control and how that impacts people, even in a most subtle way in how we go about daily life.

The most ordinary of street scenes, but that is where the beautiful late afternoon sunlight helps to make this image so interesting to look at. A street photograph with parked cars, houses and telephone poles and wires twisting the way down the street at sunset. Watertown, MA

I love flat surfaces of all types. Industry, trains, transit posters, and more. Abstract graphic photograph of the side signage and numbers on a railroad freight train combined with graffiti.

I am not a fabricator of photographs. I work best in finding my images that found and already completed in the environments where I travel. It would sure be easier if I was able to make my own art with walls or canvas, paint, graphics, and textures in the studio, but that's not how my brain works. I try to make sense of the obscure compositions that I find. There is a definite joy and happiness to find those slices of life hiding in plain sight. It takes a surgeons skill to separate and isolate what is working and what is distracting.

I never really know which of these are going to be successful until days, weeks, months, and sometimes years later when I re-edit and work with the image bringing it a full-size print.

All of my work is hand-signed and available in limited numbered editions at various sizes.

Maple syrup cans collecting sap from the maple trees to be collected, heated and evaporated until a perfect consistency of color and flavor yields a bottle of pure maple syrup. I have spent a lot of time living and going to school in Vermont so there was no excuse not to be using pure maple syrup on just about everything eatable. Well that is a mild exaggeration, but definitely best used on pancakes, waffles, and french toast. Maple syrup is such a wholesome natural product coming from the sap of maple trees when the warmer Spring weather gets the maple trees juices flowing and when the farmers tap the trees to draw the sap into buckets or in today's modern farming, using a tap with clear plastic piping that runs downhill using gravity and either directly into the maple syrup house or a collection tub to be gathered and brought over to the maple house for heating. From the tub it goes into the maple syrup house and placed into a large sink made with a series of stainless steel channels heated by a wood fire. With a person closely overseeing this process, the sap cooks-taking 40 gallons of sap and turning that into 1 gallon of pure maple syrup. It then gets graded by color and taste, bottled and sold. A natural, wholesome product that can be used in a variety of recipes.

Portrait of an older woman sitting on a beach chair at South Beach in Miami, Beach, Florida. Miami has gone through boom times and downturns changing by the quarter-century. From the mid-1960s onward Miami was definitely in a recession. With some beautiful Deco-styled hotels and architecture the last holdouts were the old people who would travel to Miami for an affordable month or 2 in the sun during the brutal winter months in the Northeast. In the early 1980s, Miami Vice was a very influential TV show which was about 2 good looking Miami police detectives, Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs wearing stylish clothes all the while capturing and arresting the typical low life's and swindlers which surround any major city, except this show, had palm trees, blue skies and white puffy clouds behind a hip sound track. All that is to say, I became interested in Miami as a place to visit and explore. During one of my visits, driving along Ocean Drive, I saw these older women sitting together in their beach chairs on a beautiful morning in South Beach, Miami in November. I had to stop the car and get out and photograph. It was an iconic setting and casting could not have done a better job with providing this woman with the perfect attire that represented for me, Miami of the mid-1950s, but in another decade.

The Manhattan Bridge spanning across the East River from Brooklyn to Manhattan. NYC

NY, NY so vast, so nice they named it twice. Written about in fiction, used as backdrops for numerous movies and newspapers. The city that never sleeps. The Big AppIe. I was born on the upper West side of Manhattan. Always a part of my blood and spirit. My parents were born there, both sets of grandparents lived there, my relatives and my cousins lived there and many of my relatives, close family and friends still reside there. I have never ceased to be amazed by New York City. It's architecture, streets, bridges and tunnels, the culture, museums, restaurants, stores and businesses, subways, taxis and the ability to mix so many different people together in one place. Photographing in NYC has always been a favorite subject of mine to explore. This image pays homage to how big NYC really is as the Manhattan Bridge stretches across the East River connecting Brooklyn and Queens with Manhattan.

The magic of mixed lights at dusk at a do it yourself car wash in Boston, MA

A mixture of boredom and adventure took me to one of the industrial parts of Boston. When I came across this do-it-yourself car wash facility, I knew something had to come of it, if I only stayed with it and kept working until I found the right POV for industrial and street photography. You have to love the acid yellow, green interior lighting of the car wash bay mixed with the gloomy overcast grey lighting of dusk.

Reflections off a mirror in a store in San Francisco overlooking San Francisco Bay and the San Mateo Haywood Bridge. CA.

When I travel working on assignments for client projects, I almost always try to create some personal time to explore where I am. I start studying a city by searches on the internet aligned with my interests in locations of museums, architecture, financial districts, churches, cemeteries, restaurants and other recommended places to see. By mapping out these areas of interest coordinated with segments of the area and then matching it with when the sunlight might be most opportune. The last part is very tricky because many times its in light that you least suspect would yield interesting photographs is where I find great or at least interesting opportunities. I get up at dawn, quickly get dressed, grab my Nikon D810 and bag with at most, 3 lenses, 2 batteries, plenty of memory cards, a bottle of water, and a few protein bars. The sun waits for nobody and my time is limited. I walk for miles every day slowly walking the streets, peeking around alleys and corners, checking out harbors, cemeteries, and towers, following the light while looking for subject matter and interesting POVs. As long as I am running photographs through the camera, I am pretty much assured of coming away with something from a day of wandering. I break it down this way: If I end up with 1 incredible photograph over the course of 3 days of shooting then over a lifetime, I could end up having 100 incredible images to show and sell. More would be nice, less would be agonizing. Think about some of your favorite photographers and how many images did they produce in their lifetimes and how many of their images you love? Most likely, you can count them on both hands, a few maybe more.

Horizontal color photograph of a ferry taking people between St Martin and St Barts.

In this photograph is a ferry transporting people from St Martin to Saint Barthélemy. The boat was bouncing roughly in the high swells, so much so, I had to position my body against 2 parts of the boat to make sure I didn't fall onto someone else or worse into the hard metal of the boat. I also needed to remove the vibrations and shake from the boats bouncing on the sea. A funny aspect of this image is that the viewer has little sense as to how jarring the ride was while it looks relatively peaceful as the ship's captain is steering the vessel while passengers are holding onto the rails and watching the view out the back of the boat. In reality, we bounced from one swell to the next until we finally came into the outer landmass and protected harbor of Gustavia.

I find it's on the way to someplace else where I find images that I want to shoot. To think that great images have an on/off button and it's not until you get to a specific place that one becomes inspired is the wrong attitude and many missed and wonderful shots will be lost. I have prepared myself to have my camera and bag easily available and ready to use. I leave my camera in my favorite sensor speed of ISO of 200, white balance in bright sun = 5500 degrees Kelvin, and the camera's shutter speed setting at 250. Knowing that the camera is in this setting allows me to quickly adjust to whatever I start to shoot next with whatever the varying light conditions might be. Special moments exist for only a very small moment, and if I hesitate, these moments disappear very quickly. There have been enough times that I when I have left the camera at the last settings I used, when I pick it up to use sometime later, it's set differently than what I might need quickly at the next opportunity.

Stop motion blur photograph of a young girl in a bikini jumping into a swimming pool with a ghosted effect.

During the Summer months, we found a community pool that we could join and we could cool off in the was only a 5-minute drive from the house in Newton, Massachusetts. Both my kids were around 9 and 12 years old. The pool was large and had 2 diving boards that lots of kids loved to jump off of. Being a photographer, I brought the camera with me and started doing both stop action with fast shutter speed photography as well as a slow shutter, blur motion tracking images of the kids jumping off the diving boards. Lots of experimenting with keeping the kids in the frame while they were moving while also working on handheld slow-motion shots. When I saw this image, I knew I have found and created something special and atmospheric. This scene becomes something different than what was actually occurring. The gesture and position of the child entering the blue pool was caught at a perfect moment without her being totally submerged into the depth of the water. Being able to maintain the silhouette and form of the child brings together the mystery of that moment. Something very different than what was actually just a bunch of screaming kids and lifeguards blowing their whistles and asking kids to stop running around in hopes of avoiding injuries on their watch.

Portrait of an African Muslim man wearing keffiyeh headscarf against an orange wall in the Old City, Tripoli, Libya.

I was on assignment in Libya in 2007 for The Monitor Group, a Cambridge, MA-based, worldwide consulting organization that was at the time consulting with the Kaddafi government in Libya. They were training senior-level government and corporate executives on the relative and applicable theories of Harvard Business School, Michael Porter's concepts of economics. My company, an interactive communications firm, Visual Stream Productions was hired to produce this state of the art, educational eLearning DVD. I was there to gather content, both video interviews as well as photographs for use in this complex application. I worked with directly Thomas Craig, one of the founders of The Monitor Group and Tony Goldner on the ground in Tripoli.

The longest time the Libyan government allowed for my visa was for 8 days. To be able to visit North Africa under the watch and support of the Muammar Kaddafi government was a fascinating look into world geopolitics and regional history. How do you teach Western principals of business strategy, leadership, competitiveness, and entrepreneurship using real-world Libyan case studies to an Islamic nation under military rule with an ideology far different from western values? Without going too much further about the goals of this project and the subsequent success of building this world-class application, this is a memory of a very special time in my life which afforded me a unique opportunity to explore a very foreign culture filled with history.

Neon sign on a cross with the words, “ Sin will find you out” found on a street in NYC, NY

How startling and strange it was to walk down a quiet street on the West side of mid-town Manhattan and come across this piece of neon religious imagery. Was it a church? social commentary? public condemnation in the middle of NYC? Hard to tell, but fascinating to find and photograph.

Brick wall abstracted to a minimalistic and essential photograph based on lines and patterns of the bricks, pipes, and construction materials.

Sometimes the hardest things to see are the things right there in front of us. It's so normal, so much of the same, so familiar that it's almost impossible to discern the familiar from the obscure elements which make up our environment. At first glance, yes, its a brick wall. Gaze at the image awhile, let it linger in front of you as large as you can make it and the photograph becomes more about the parts which make up the whole.

Pedestrian street light indicating people not to walk while the light is red. Paris, France

I have written and spoken about the familiar being so normal we no longer see things for what they can be or might be. The intention of the public works department was to put up a street crossing light that notifies pedestrians when it's safe for walking with the changing of the colored lights. What happens when that is taken out of context or seen from a very different perspective? Where are the people the light is telling us not to walk? Is it a warning sign indicating humans are nearby? If you are standing there and there are no cars coming, is it safe to cross? Is the deep state watching over us and controlling our movements? It is these types of questions and narratives that my photographs hope to raise in each viewer.

Mannequins are a mirror of our culture or at least certain demographics of society. The specialty companies who manufacture mannequins continue to change the look and expressions to reflect the targeted audience's interests from specific stores and retailers.

This store, in upstate New York had seen better days. What was probably once a thriving industrial town is hobbling along and trying to survive without updating its windows except for new clothes on old mannequins. Mixed in with defining and identifying what is beauty? Is what's beautiful to be the same for you? Most likely not and this juxtaposition of the dressed mannequin with its bald-headed reflection indicates that very contrast and dialogue and yet at the same time upholds a cultural ideal instilled by the sculptors who created these figurines.

Photograph of clouds and sky at 25,00 feet high, and yes my arms got very tired.

I will always remember the first flight I ever traveled on when I was 9 years old going to visit a friend and his extended family in Wisconson. I was looking forward to traveling alone and being met at the airport in Madison. These were the days when full meals were served and people lit up cigarettes and smoked their way to wherever they were going. There wasn't a smoking section as the entire plane would fill up with the haze and smell of cigarettes.

It was a cloudy and overcast day and I anticipated the trip ahead. What I didn't expect was the experience of the sheer power of the jet engines kicking in upon take-off and being pressed into the back of the seat. When we broke thru the layer of low clouds, I was met by the sun shining on me thru the small oval window. It brought a smile of wonderment and appreciation. I looked up and down for angels who might be flying about on the soft white clouds. To this day, I love being up high over the earth and having that vantage point in which to see the world around me. You can be sure my camera is always close at hand.

Island with trees in the middle of a lake in a Winter snowstorm. Waltham, MA.

Living in the Boston area, we have both the beauty and hardships of living in 4 very different seasons every year. Sometimes its more like 2.5. Hot, very hot, and fuckin freezing. Some seasons it feels like we go from winter right into Summer. Then again, we also get those rare days that are perfectly in-between and be sure, they are very much appreciated and enjoyed for making New England a perfect climate to live in.

That said, if one is going to live in New England, there is no hiding from the weather. Just the opposite. I go through changing from an average 4 different pairs of shoes a day to accommodate for whatever the weather was and is currently doing. As the old saying goes, whatever the weather is, wait 5 minutes and it will surely change. When I owned a 4 x4 Ford Explorer, I would head out in the middle of a snowstorm to see what the world looked like in the heavy snow. The good news is that most sane people stay inside with the heat blasting while watching the news, making fresh batches of chocolate something cookies and helping the kids keep busy making snow forts and then eventually clearing off the driveways, walkways, and cars.

Interior architecture of a stone column with a ray of sunlight streaming in. Les Invalides, Paris, France

When I started out as a commercial photographer, I specialized in architectural photography. I was recently out of art school at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and I started thinking about how I could make a living as a photographer. I wanted to travel, but I couldn't afford to. If I specialized in an area of photography where clients could not bring the objects or people to me and instead would need to bring me to the subjects then this would likely create a win-win relationship for me to both make money and find myself in different cities around the world working with an expense account.

For decades this was a successful combination and helped to finance trips all over the United States. My work also instilled a love and respect for architecture. From the brand new to the ancient, I grew an appreciation for looking at what people built under the supervision and direction of incredible architects, craftsmen, and builders.

Poster of a boy jumping into a swimming pool with 2 people standing on either side of the poster.

Removing 1 detail or taking an element out of context within a photograph changes the actual relationships and the perception of reality as presented in that photograph. This style of photography most closely aligns with what's referred to as 'street photography'. The use of juxtaposition and point of view is a critical component of what determines the success or failure of making exciting street photographs and the ability to tell complex visual stories which raises questions about a suggested narrative without answering whether the image is fact or a form of fiction.

When cameras became miniaturized into handheld tools, this enabled photographers to work more quickly and quietly allowing them to work more easily without people being self-conscious and aware of the photographer.

Some of the great street photographers who I have learned from are Robert Frank, Henri Cartier Bresson, Diane Arbus, Martin Parr, Lee Friedlander, Josef Koudelka, Bruce Davidson, and William Klein. Any google search will yield an extensive list of many talented photographers working inside of this photographic style.

Cars and streets at dusk on the hills in San Francisco, CA.

Decades ago, I went to a fortune-telling/psychic who told me that I would eventually be living in California. Needless to say, that never happened as I have lived in the Boston area my entire life. I have always wanted to spend time in California and an assignment project for Bessemer Trust, a large personal high net worth investment company photographing their annual report took me to San Francisco, Washington DC, Miami, and New York City for several weeks of photography. Usually after a long day of shooting for my clients, I head back to the hotel, download files into backup hard drives, add a new fresh battery into the camera, and then head right out onto the streets looking to create my own images.

This was only the 2nd time I have traveled and explored San Francisco which feels very much like a sister city to my home town of Boston, Massachusetts. A rich history, interesting geography, great architecture, a strong artistic and financial foundation, and progressive social and environmental agendas make San Francisco a great city to explore and photograph in.

White exterior of the Sudbury Methodist Church photographed in the aftermath of a Winter snowstorm in 2006.

I have mentioned in other blog posts about my love for architecture and shooting in inclement weather. Certainly coming across this beautiful 19th mid-century building. The elegant unembellished and unpretentious simple lines follow the vertical lines up to the steeple and back down again to the doors and columns. The simple color of white reinforces the desired effect of modesty and minimalist feel.

Marble statue of a young Hercules. MET Museum, NYC, NY.

Understanding what other artists' materials and processes are, gives a great understanding into one's own creative process. Thankfully we have museums whose goals are to collect, restore, and make available art that has been produced for thousands of years. We probably only get to see a sliver of the holdings of a museum at any one time and then again only a small slice of works which have survived to this day.

For me, visiting a museum is like visiting friends in a foreign city. Its always a pleasure to see them again, to look them over and study them as if new to my eyes but with the added value that I have already spent time closely looking at these works of art before.

I know that I am not alone in this feeling. You can visit a museum any time to see the hundreds if not thousands of people who come from around the globe to see and study a museum's collections and shows. More the reason to encourage individual collectors to turn their collections over to large and trusted institutions for safekeeping and public display.

2 mailboxes on a rural road in Vermont.

People walking around the mall with advertising posters for stores.

Walking the streets of any major metropolitan city often yields clues to the history of that city. From faded hand-painted advertising signs on the side of brick buildings to statues and plaques offering visitor insights to the denizens who lived there decades, generations, or even centuries before. When I came across this lovely shoe repair sign in stages of decay, I knew that I had to try and capture it as it would only be a matter of time before someone would authorize a painter to come in and paint it all white and removing any trace of this unique handpainted red sign advertising shoe repairs for a store in New York City, NY.

Abstract swirling orange lines of the cables supporting the Zakim Bridge reflected in water with a blue sky.

Exterior abstract photograph of Simmons Hall by architect Steven Holl. Cambridge, MA